Pinwheel



Aug. 11, 1925.

G. G. GREGER PINWHEEL Filed Jan. 31 1922 Patented Aug. 11, 1925.

UNITED STATES GEORGE G. GREGER, 0F DETROIT, MICHIGAN.

PINWHEEL.

Application filed January 31, 1922. Serial No. 533,062.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, GEORGE G. Gnnonn, a citizen of the United States of America, residing at Detroit, in the county of l/Vayne and State of Michigan, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Pinwheels, of which the following is a specification, reference being had therein to the accompanying drawings.

This invention relates to a new article of manufacture that may be used as an ornament, toy, amusement or decorative device, and in either instances the article is susceptible to any desired finish, in some instances being highly ornamented or decorative and in other instances being plain and built more for wear and consequently possessing greater longevity.

My invention, in its broadest aspect, in-

volves producing geometrical configurations, either from a single blank or from two or more blanks, the blank being cut or the blanks cut and placed together, to afford a plurality of bendable arms which may be bent, gathered and arranged so as to form propeller blades, leaves, petals or extremities which will cooperate in forming various articles. For instance, the arms of the blanks may be bent and gathered to form propeller blades of a double wind wheel with some of the blades in staggered relation to other blades so that the wind wheel may present to the atmosphere a maximum surface against which air may impinge to rapidly revolve the wind wheel.

A blank may have its arms bent, gathered or arranged to represent the leaves, petals or clusters of a flower which may have its artificial configuration and appearance enhanced to approach nature by the arms having serrated edges, embossed portions or markings in imitation of nature; With such an artificial flower additional trimmings may be installed between the blanks or between a blank and its supporting means, so that the final article will be attractive and in accordance with ones esthetic taste.

My invention further aims to provide a double pin wheel made of one or more blanks having bendable portions that may be gathered and held by a pin or double arbor which may be easily mounted relative to a suitable support, for instance, a

stick. The blanks from which the pin wheels are produced may be made from any material, for instance semi-rigid glazed paper and of course such paper or material may be colored or ornamented so that the pin wheel will be attractive to juveniles.

My invention further aims to produce wheels, rosettes, ornaments or like articles that can be manufactured at a comparatively small cost and which will be highly efli cient for the purposes for which they are intended. The construction entering into such articles will be hereinafter specifically desired and then claimed and reference will now be had to the drawing, wherein Figure 1 is a front elevation of the new article of manufacture made from a single blank;

Fig. 2 is a longitudinal sectional view of the same;

Fig. 3 is a similar view of a portion of an article, showing a tubular arbor supporting two blanks;

' Fig. 4 is a plan of superposed blanks adapted to form an article;

Fig. 5 is a plan of a single blank for forming an article such as suggested in Figs. 1 and 2;

Fig. 6 is a plan, on a small scale, of another form of blank that may be used to produce an article, and

Fig. 7 is a plan of a trimming or further form of blank that. may form part of the article shown in Figs. 1 and 2.

Reference will first be had to Fig. 5 showing a blank piece of material, as paper that is substantially circular in plan and radiating from a central or hub portion 1 of the blank are slits 2 dividing the central portion of the blank into a plurality of arms 3 and l. Each slit is less than a radii of the blank in order that the outer ends of alternating arms 3 and 4- may have a contour imparted thereto. Considering the outer ends of the arms 4, said arms have curved edges 5 and 6 and the outer ends of the arms 3 have curved edges 7 and 8 with all of said arms provided with apices 9 extending in a circumferential direction. This is brought about by the curved edges 5 to 8 inclusive being at a tangent to the circumference of the blank, and the arms are more or less crescent shaped with the arms 3 somewhat more acute at the outer ends than the arms l, so that when the arms 3 and 4: are folded or bowed, the arms 3 will be of less length than the arms l. This is a simple form of blank and prior to further operations on the blank, the arms 3 and 4 may be decorated to lend suitable colors and ornamentation to said arms. In some instances the arms may have the edges thereof scalloped or serrated, as at 10 inimita-tion of leaves and veins or ribs may be printed, embossed, marked or otherwise applied to the arms, as at 11, thus imparting a realistic leaf effect.

For an ordinary plain wind wheel the arms 3 and 4: may remain in their barecon dition and be simply bent or bowed to af-' ford propeller blades. This is brought about by bending the apices 9 of'the arms 4 rearwardly into overlapping relation at the central or hub portion 1 of the blank, and the arms 3 are bent forwardly and their apices placed in overlapping relation at the front side of the blank. With the extremities of the arms 3 and 4 so gathered a pin 12 may extend through the apices of the arms and a central or hub portion .of the blank and said pin may be mounted in a stick 13 or other support. On the pin 12, at the front'and rear sides of the wheel may be placed beads/14 or other spacing members, such members cooperating withthe stick 13 and the head of the pin in holding the ends of the arms in sandwiched relation, as shownin Fig. 2. J

The blank thus far described includes a sufiicient number of arms to afford a plurality of large propeller blades with a pluality of small propeller blades in a plane set in front of the plane of the large propeller blade, and the small propeller blade staggered relative to the large blades. In bowing or folding over the arms 3 and f the wide portion of each arm forms a tapering pocket having its ends open and air can readily enter such pockets and cause rotation of the propeller blades.

In those instances where the arms 3 and 4: are decorated and represent artificial leaves or petals the wheel will take on the appearance of a blooming flower and the appearance ofthe wheel, with this flower end in *iew, maybe further enhanced by additional. trimmings on the pin 12, in front or behind the leaves or interposed between said leaves. One of such trimmings has been shown in Fig. 7 as made of paper and composed of radially disposed arms 15 representing petals, pistils or centralportions of flowers. Thear'ms 15 may have any configuration and of coursemay be colored or marked to contribute to a natural appearance. of the artificial flower. Y

Carrying my invention a step further I may use two blanks, generally designated 16 and 17 and place these blanks in superposed relation with the arms of one blank somewhat staggered relative to the arms of the other blank. The arms of one blank may be of a different size, shape and finish from the arms of the other blank and one set of arms may be bowed rearwardly and the other forwardly or all of said arms bowed in the same direction, according to the article to be produced. In some instances the article 7 may be an artificial flower, a rosette, a cluster or any decorative device, and it is obvious that any Waste material from the blanks may: be utilized as trimmings.

As showing another form of blankthat may be converted into an ornamental article, see Fig. 6. Here the blank is cut to provide substantially crescent shaped arms 18 and oval arms 19, and by using a plurality of such blanks in superposed relation, a full and many leaved artificial flower can be produced.

Instead of using a pin as an arbor or axis about which the wheel may revolve, I may use a tubular rivet 20 as shown in Fig. 3, with its ends upset to postively hold the ends of the arms of two-wheel blanks gathered axially of the complete wheel. Then an ordinary pin or rod may be inserted through the tubular rivet so that the wheel may freely revolve.

From the foregoing it will be observed that by resorting to the use of different colors and various kinds of ornamentations or trimmings that realistic artificial flowers may be produced or highly ornamented ar- V ticles, and it is obvious that the various kinds of blanks can be produced by the use of suitable dies, patterns etc.

lVhile in the drawings, there are illustrated the preferred embodiments of my invention, it is to be understood that the construction and arrangement of parts'may be changed, as to size, shape and manner of assemblage, as fall within the scope of the appended claims. 7

hat I claim is 1. A wind wheel comprising bowed arms formed from a blank slitted to afford two sets of arms, the arms of one set alternating with the arms of the other set and all of said arms connected at their inner ends by a hub portion to which the extremities of all of said arms extend when bowed, one set of arms being bowed in a plane in front of the planes of the other set of arms, and a pin extending through the hub portion and extremities of said arms.

2. An ornamentation made from a blank fashioned to afford a hub portion and sets of crescent. shaped arms, said arms being bowed with the arms of one set in a plane in front of the plane or. the other set of arms andthe extremities of said arms placed in superposed relation at the hub portion of said blank, means axially of said blank hub portion retaining the extremities of said arms together, and trimmings supported by said axial means.

3. An ornamentation as called for in claim 2, wherein said axial means is in the form of a pin adapted to be mounted in a support, and a spacing member on the pin between said ornamentation and the support which receives the pin.

In testimony whereof I affix my signature in presence of two witnesses.

GEORGE G. GREGER. lVitnesses:

ANNA M. DoRR, KARL H. BUTLER. 

